1. Before I took my summer vacation at the end of August, I wrote a column titled “And now for something completely different: An optimistic look at the Canucks.”

The article was overly optimistic for a reason. The weather was nice, I was in a good mood and I wanted to write something positive. I thought Canucks fans could use it.

In the article, I floated the theory that there are five key pieces to a typical Stanley Cup-winning roster, and with Elias Pettersson, Bo Horvat, Brock Boeser, Quinn Hughes and Thatcher Demko, the Canucks might have already drafted those pieces.

The reason I mention this now is because here’s what I wrote about Pettersson:

“Pettersson is admittedly a very skinny teenager, and despite his obvious talent, it’s fair to wonder if he’ll be able to handle the rigours of playing centre in the NHL. That’s going to be a major storyline this season, and possibly for the next few seasons. Some franchises...